E 
392. 




^'fhtiv ftir\^, .^f^^,. 



f-. 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE DEATH OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



BY 



REV. J. WHEELER 







Glass. 
Book 






Mm. 



DISCOURSE 



OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF 



GEN. WILLIAM HEJVRY HARRISON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UiNITED STATES, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF BURLINGTON AND VICINITY, 



APRIL 93, 1841. 



BY JOHN WHEELER, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. 



[Pultliglied by Request. 




^CHRONICLE PRESS, 
VV 1 JN D S O R . 

isTi. 



ADV^ERTISEMENT. 

The author has availed himself of the opportunity, arising from a request 
to repeat the discourse in another place, to rewrite, to some extent, the 
notice of the character of the late President. 



DISCOURSE. 



PSALM 46 : 10. 

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD, I WILL BE EXALTED AMONG THE HEA- 
THEN, I WILL BE EXALTED IN THE EARTH. 

We are assembled, fellow citizens, to offer the last tokens 
of respect to our departed Chief Magistrate ; and to consider 
the lessons of solemn instruction derived from his sudden 
and unexpected death. Whatever difference of opinion we 
may have had concerning him, before his election, the mo- 
ment he assumed the insignia of office, and was declared 
President of the United States, he was no longer the 
simple citizen concerning whom there had been a sharp con- 
troversy, but the supreme executive of law in the land. The 
feelings of reverence which every good man bears to the 
Constitution of the country, as its highest declared law, and 
to the just institutions and statutes emanating from it, then 
gathered itself about this man, as the more outward and vis- 
ible organ through whom we were to receive the high bene- 
fits of our united government. Our interests of property, 
of family, of national honor, of happiness, and of life itself, 
were, for the time, placed in his hands, as the personage 
whom the law constituted protector, and keeper of them all. 



Before this, many loved the man for his frank simpUcity and 
freedom from all ostentation, for his benignity and conde- 
scension to the most humble, for his spontaneous and un- 
wearied benevolence, for his incorruptible honesty in every 
pecuniary trust, for his ready, constant and unwavering de- 
votion to his country, for his pure and simple Christian faith, 
and for a beautiful union of private excellence with public 
virtue, that has rarely been equalled, and perhaps never sur- 
passed among our citizens. But when he was invested with 
the robe of State, and sat down in the highest seat of au- 
thority, he assumed before us a new character, and we all 
did him reverence as the minister of the law for the highest 
good to the nation. We all looked to him, as the common 
centre and head of the people, and felt ourselves to be one 
by our union together under him. 

It is because he was thus regarded, that his sudden 
death has given such a shock to the whole nation, filling ev- 
ery city, and village, and hamlet, and habitation, with sorrow. 
When it was said, " the President is dead,^' it was felt like 
the electric power from the centre to the circumference of 
the land ; " the man of business dropped his pen — the arti- 
san dropped his tools — the scholar closed his book — children 
looked up to their parents, and wives to the countenances of 
their husbands, and the wail of sorrow rose, as if each had 
lost a parent, or some near and dear friend." 

This deep and universal feeling, which now pervades our 
country, is grounded in that common but mysterious rever- 
ence for law, which belongs to every reflecting mind. This 
reverence has made the death of the chief ruler, or minister 
of the law, of every nation, a solemn and awful event ; an 
event to be marked by the most serious and reverent cere- 
monies, and by the most solemn and unaffected tokens of 
grief; an event to be recorded in its history, and to mark an 
era in its existence, among the nations. No matter what 
may be the form of the government, no matter what 
the circumstances of the nation, the death of its Ruler makes 



a pause in it, as though paralysis had struck its thousand 
employments ; or as though the angel of death had poured 
his vials upon the whole people. And such it should be ; 
for, at the moment of the blow, it is as though law itself 
were dead, and the great cord of social existence broken in 
sunder. But it is not so. There is that, which still 
liveth, as we bear witness to ourselves by the solemn respect 
we pay to the departed, by the reverent feelings we indulge, 
and especially by the law and the order we call to our aid in 
our formal processions, in our outward arrangements of 
honor, and in our habiliments of mourning. These all be- 
come inward and outward testimonies, that in the midst of 
death there is life ; life which still recognizes our social unity, 
by the common forms of sorrow which we assume, and by 
their quiet and orderly arrangement. And were it not that 
there are deeper principles within us, displayed by reverence 
for law, as that by which we have been and ever ought 
to be governed, deeper principles than mere instincts, and 
stronger forces than our conventional agreements, and our 
formal arrangements, which we call compacts, — were there 
not something stronger than all these, we should be, when 
our head is struck down, like that community of insects, in 
which, when the head is destroyed, the commonwealth is 
broken up ; disunion, disorganization, and finally, universal 
death ensue. Well and of good right, therefore, has our 
nation poured forth and is still pouring forth her expressions 
of bereavement and sorrow. 

" How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of rejoicing ; 
how is she become as a widow ; she that was great among 
the nations and prince among the provinces, she weepeth 
sore in the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks. Her 
priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitter- 
ness." 

It is in the way I have pointed out, that the death of the 
chief ruler of a country reveals to a reflecting people the 
ground of that government on which they depend for the se- 



curity of all their earthly interests. In the shock they re- 
ceive, I have said, each suffers in the bereavement as though 
a near and dear friend had fallen, and thus makes it manifest 
that there is, in the bosom of each, the ground of reverent 
regard for that, for which the ruler existed, viz : for the law 
of which he was the organ and administrator. The ready 
and the formal manner in which this multitude have assem- 
bled, which is indeed but a representation of the manner of 
the whole people, to express their grief, and to speak of their 
bereavement, shows the deep feeling that pervades every 
bosom. We are not here by the command of any earthly 
authority, fearful of terrible consequences to ourselves or to 
others, if we do not come. But we come from those spon- 
taneous feelings of the heart, which are not to be repressed 
or frowned into silence, but which imperiously demand some 
outward and public expression of love and reverent regard 
for that law and order of which our departed ruler was to us 
the organ and expression. It is not a private and personal 
affair, at all, that has brought us together ; it is not a parti- 
san object ; it is not a statute of the land, nor even a prece- 
dent, in this country ; it is the solemn feeling of respect, in 
the bosom of all and of each of us, towards our consti- 
tuted guardian of life and liberty, of law and order. It is 
this feeling, which leads us to assemble, in circumstances of 
joy, to rejoice in harmonious unity ; and which, on occasions 
of danger, leads us to assemble for mutual consultation and 
protection ; and which, on occasions of sorrow, as this day, 
draws us together to sympathize and to express our common 
griefs in a common and united way. It is this feeling in 
each and all of us, which naturally and necessarily leads to 
the existence of the social state ; and which, under the direc- 
tion of that feeling of accountableness to right, or that idea 
of justice, which all men profess, impels them naturally and 
necessarily to the formation of political and civil govern- 
ment. It may be called by various names, as the social feel- 
ing, as the law of social existence, or, if regarded from 



another position, and spoken of not in relation to the spon- 
taneous expressions of mere social desire, but in relation to 
civil and political institutions, it may be said to be the feeling 
of accountableness applied to mutual intercourse, or the idea 
of justice developing itself in human institutions, and apply- 
ing itself to human exigencies. Its name is of small conse- 
quence ; its reality is essential to the existence of the social 
state, and to the institutions of society. Its existence in our 
minds, and its manifestations in our habits, would be a practi- 
cal rebuke to all, who might not join us ; we should cast them 
forth not by a statute or by force, but because they were 
without this law of social existence — they would be law-less. 
Henceforth they would eschew the expressions and tokens 
of social life, and withdraw from the law that urges us to 
unite our fortunes together in joy, in danger, in prosperity, 
in sorrow, and in bereavement. If a human being, so deny- 
ing social existence, could be supposed actually to exist, he 
would, henceforth, become like Cain, a wanderer in the 
earth ; and it would come to pass, that whosoever should 
meet him would slay him, as an enemy to the race. 

The political and civil institutions, and regulations of a 
country have, for their object, the developement and egress 
of this social feeling, so that there may be produced the high- 
est happiness, the greatest purity, and the most just and 
elevated character in the nation. These institutions and reg- 
ulations may assume any particular form, which the people 
may choose, or their peculiar circumstances demand. Differ- 
ent nations may have different forms, and the same nation 
different forms at different periods, and still have the same 
object in view, and be governed by the same principles in 
seeking that object. As the essential character of religion is 
not created by its outward forms and ceremonies or its eccle- 
siastical organization and rules, but may be found in every 
nation in him "who feareth God and worketh righteous- 
ness," so the essential character of a State is not created by 
its outward forms, its public institutions and regulations, but 



8 

by that social feeling which knits men together in mutual 
intercourse, that each may give and receive whatever jus- 
tice permits and enjoins. Government is thus essential to 
the existence of society, and no company of human beings 
can live together without it. It does not spring from the will 
of the strongest, nor out of the authority of the most know- . 
ing ; nor does it come from tradition, nor the accidental cir- 
cumstances of birth, but from that inward law, which, as the 
voice of God, enjoins social existence on all human beings, 
under a sense of responsibleness to justice and equity. 

Moreover, it is not true that the freedom of a State is de- 
rived from any particular form of government, any more 
than that the essential character of the State is. Its free- 
dom consists in the natural going forth of the social feeling 
— the spontaneous developement of the law of social exis- 
tence — in all mutual intercourse under such particular direc- 
tions as perfect justice prescribes for securing the happiness 
and elevating the character of the people. These laws and 
regulations may be found under one form of government as 
really, I do not say as naturally, as under another form. 
And their destruction or violation may, in certain circum- 
stances, be found under one form, as really as under another. 
To sit under one's own vine and fig-tree, with none to 
molest or make afraid, and to follow, without let or hin- 
drance, the honest and pure desires of the heart, as one may 
choose, does not belong exclusively to one age, or to one 
government. It is found in every age, in some quiet spots, 
and under various forms of government. And to feel both 
life and property to be insecure, and to be held, not of right, 
but at the mercy of the absolute and irresponsible authority 
of others, has been the wretched and unhappy condition of 
multitudes in all ages, and under all the varieties of social 
organization. The crimes of the "bloody Mary," or of 
Caesar Borgia, will find their parallel in the Athenian 
Democracy, banishing some of her wisest and most incor- 
ruptible citizens, and poisoning some of the purest and most 



enlightened statesmen and philosophers the world ever saw ; 
or, in a Parisian populace, crowding its prisons and feeding 
the axe of the executioner with the purest and noblest blood 
of the nation, in the name of liberty and of equal rights. 
Extremes are easily brought together ; and a multitude of 
men, clamorous for some object, which their excited passions 
demand, will take the advice of, and give the lead to the 
most ardent and daring will in their company, and be driven 
on, they scarcely know how, to the accomphshment of their 
purpose. And the most violent and self-willed man, find- 
ing or having excited the people about him, will guide them 
to suit his own purposes. It is thus, that extremes meet ; 
and the man of the multitude may become the tyrant of the 
multitude. It is the certainty of this, that led the most 
accurate historians and the most philosophic minds of anti- 
quity, many of whom wrote in the midst of free institutions, 
to affirm that the demagogue and the tyrant were of the 
democracy, and ranked themselves with it ; that is, they 
sought to break down every man, who by wisdom and intel- 
ligence or accidental circumstances, was distinguished above 
the mass of society, that they might rule the mass at their 
will, and make it do their bidding. This is as true, in our 
day, as in the palmy periods of Greece and Rome, and we 
have known as lamentable illustrations of it. Pisistratus, 
Julius Ca3sar, Cromwell, Robespierre, and Napoleon, were 
of the popular parties of the day. 

A most despotic government may, for the time being, be 
under the guidance of a wise and enlightened monarch, who 
shall advance, by all means in his power, the best interests 
of the people. An absolute government is not necessarily 
destructive of the ends for which government exists, 
although, whatever may be its outward form, it contains the 
seeds of tyranny in its irresponsible character, and its uncon- 
trolled will. The most absolute monarch, perhaps, in 
Europe, during his reign, which has just closed, com- 
menced a series of unexampled reforms, in the administra- 

B 



10 

tion of justice, in the economy of the royal household, in 
making liis subjects freeholders in the soil, and in organizing 
his army of citizens, and therefore not independent of the 
people. He declares that " the new system is based upon 
the principle, that every subject, personally free, be able to 
raise himself, and develope his powers freely, without let or 
hindrance from any other ; that the public burdens be borne 
in common and just proportions ; that equality before the 
law, be secured to every subject ; that justice be rigidly and 
punctually administered ; that merit, in whatsoever rank it 
may be found, be enabled to rise without obstacle ; that the 
government be carried on with unity, order and power ; and 
that, by the education of the people, and the spread of true 
religion, the general interests, and a national spirit be pro- 
moted, as the only secure basis of the national welfare."* 

Higher and better objects could scarcely be proposed by 
any government, and if carried out with efficiency and in- 
tegrity, there would be the greatest security for personal 
liberty and for the rights of property, although those of citi- 
zenship might be partially denied. A strong objection to 
such forms would always exist, however well the government 
might be administered for the time being, because they con- 
tain no provision by which such administration can be se- 
cured from time to time, without destructive revolutions. 
A more fundamental objection to them, if the nation is sup- 
posed to be well enough instructed to guide itself, is, that the 
social feehng of the nation is not consulted, and cannot have 
its natural and free developement. Society becomes artificial 
in its forms and manners : and orders itself according to the 
peculiarities of a single mind, or a small class of minds, and 
in the end, the government becomes a practical, if not a con- 
scious, denial to the citizen of his free right to " life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." This cannot but produce a 
dwarfish eflfect upon the national mind, depriving it of that 

* Prof. Stowe'a Report on Elementary Public Instruction, to the General 
Assembly of Ohio. 



11 

free and vigorous feeling, that fresh and active spirit, which 
spontaneously strives for the most worthy ends by the most 
noble means. This spirit is worthy to be cultivated even at 
the risk of many evils. Although the " fierce democracy" of 
Athens was terribly unjust and utterly regardless of the 
rights and character of many of her best and worthiest citi- 
zens, yet, like a too luxuriant plant, it seemed, at times, to 
shoot out from itself the most rich and beautiful foliage, and 
to give joyful hope of mature and glorious fruit. It, however, 
only exhausted itself, and brought on premature decay and 
suicidal destruction. This feeling ought not, therefore, to 
be strangled by the form of government. It is the strong 
foundation of national character, and, healthfully directed, 
will shoot forth in great and attractive beauty. While, 
therefore, we should cherish, on the one hand, the active 
developement of this national feeling, every good man will 
strive, on the other, to restrain and to order it by the perfect 
law of righteousness, lest it assume the ministry of destruc- 
tion, and, having destroyed every good institution in society, 
finally destroy itself, by a leap into the arms of despotism. 

Thus it is, that the freedom of a State does not arise from 
its form of government, but from its action being such, that 
the social feelings of the nation, in their best and widest 
sense, are most freely and most equitably expressed. This 
should be attempted only under the condition of sufficient 
knowledge to do it v/ith intelligence and under permanent 
legal forms. For it is surely better for those, who cannot 
take care of themselves, that others should care for them, 
than that they should be left to vegetate in barbarism and 
brutality. It is necessary, therefore, that the form of gov- 
ernment, rightfully to develope the social feelings of the na- 
tion, should be such, as not only to secure the personal 
rights of the people, and their rights of property, but their 
rights as citizens ; that is, their participation in the legislative 
power. For it is through this, that the spirit of tlie people, 
the social feeling of the nation, expresses itself ; awakening 



12 

a happy contentedness and an unseen joy, in the conscious 
adaptation of the statutes to the exercise and expression of 
the national spirit, and the national feeling. It is in this 
way that a representative government, one that re-presents, 
in its forms of business and in the spirit of its laws, the 
character and the feelings of the nation, is the only govern- 
ment which freedom and liberty can desire, or which an 
enlightened patriot can seek for its own sake, or can endure, 
except from an iron-hearted necessity. 

The rise of parties in our country seems to have sprung, 
in a great degree, from two sources : 1. From a misconcep- 
tion of the foundation of government itself ; and 2. From 
considering only the external forms, which government has 
assumed. Many writers, in speaking of its foundation, con- 
sidered it a compact, or conventional agreement between the 
States, or the individuals composing the States, concerning 
which men might, of good right, have different, or even op- 
posite opinions. This overlooked, to a great extent, that 
ever-existent social feeling in man, which constantly seeks to 
express itself by some unity of law or of personal head, that 
shall make all to live, and move as a harmonious company ; 
and which seeks the outward form of legislative and execu- 
tive power only that it may justly and truly attain the secu- 
rity, the happiness, and the excellence which, under a sense 
of justice, it seeks as its true and proper end. By neglecting 
to regard this, or not honestly seeking to follow it, come 
many of the evils of party spirit. The view which was ta- 
ken, confined the origin of government to the compact or 
conventional agreement, and then it was classified among 
the existing forms of government in the world ; of which 
there are usually said to be three, monarchy, aristocracy, and 
democracy. But our government was not either of these. 
The question then was, towards which will it tend in its 
workings ? Will it be democratic ? Will it be aristocratic ? 
or, will it be monarchical ? And the men of the Revolution 
broke up from a common union, in which they fought, side 



13 

by side, against a common foe, to battle it with fury and 
hate against each other. You are for democracy, it was 
said ; and you for aristocracy ; and you for monarchy ! This 
has been handed down from sire to son ; and the same party 
names and party epithets, hke invincible soldiers, make their 
regular appearance in the field, on each electioneering cam- 
paign. 

There is certainly a more just and honest way of looking 
at this subject ; and one which this solemn and affecting 
occasion points out, by making us sensible of a common 
ground of grief independent of our political parties, as the 
way of peace and harmony. And this is, in the first place, 
to have done with considering that our government was or- 
ganized after any of these forms, or that it has any exclu- 
sive tendency to any one of them. And in the second 
place, to consider it as organized to secure our rights as men, 
viz. our personal security, and our rights of property, and 
also our rights as citizens, viz. a participation in the legisla- 
tive power by representation, which shall make us one in the 
spirit of our laws, and in the simplicity and unity of our 
national action. * 

There is, then, a deeper and more solemn view of this 
subject, which is brought before us by this affecting occasion ; 
and that is, that there is a pulse of social feeling in society, 
independent of all or any of these forms of government ; a 
feeling from which no one can divest himself except by re- 
nouncing existence in human society ; a feeling, which is 
distinctly called into conscious life by the event which has 
called us together ; and this, working consciously or uncon- 
sciously, has led to the formation of our government, and 
now constitutes its sustaining strength. It is not sustained 
by its forms ; on the contrary, they are created and sustain- 
ed by this feeling. A paper called the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, or another called the Constitution, does not sus- 
tain the government, nor does it abide because it tends to 

* See note at the end. 



14 

democracy, or to aristocracy, or to monarchy. It has a 
deeper foundation than all, in the hearts and consciences of 
the people. The universal shock, that has passed through 
the land, is because the cold finger of death has touched the 
nerve that unites us together, and made us shudder at the 
possibility of its paralysis. By the form of our government, 
we have given the most free and full influence to this social 
feeling, upon all the institutions of the country. Universal 
suffrage brings it to act upon the whole structure and action 
of society in its civil and political forms. It thus becomes a 
perennial fountain to supply the nation with vigorous hope, 
and with unceasing activity. To that very hope and to that 
very enterprising activity, the demagogue and the man of 
tyrannical will, must apply themselves, if they would attain 
their selfish and guilty objects. They will, therefore, press 
our hopes into bright but unreal imaginings, and our enter- 
prise and activity they will urge until we lose all security 
and permanence in a heedless rush after a condition, not of 
equality before law, but of likeness and similarity in outward 
circumstances, which is unattainable within the limits of 
human existence. Our only hope, then, is in requiring with 
great earnestness and severity, that the social feeling of the 
nation shall order itself according to justice, and by the 
rules that the supreme laws of the land prescribe. Every 
good man is called upon to lay aside party bickerings, and to 
watch and to pray, that justice and judgment may be the 
stability of our times. 

The man, whose death we this day deplore, brought to 
his high office a most uncommon share of sympathy with 
the common mind. The essential qualities of humanity 
seem to have made his bosom their peculiar residence ; and 
he was, therefore, far beyond most good men, in the interior 
of his heart, the just and adequate representative of the 
national feeling. The men who had become, by choice or 
by accident, the leaders of party, the nation rejected ; and 
called him from his private ministrations of benevolent kind- 



15 

ness, and from the quiet of his agricultural pursuits, to guide 
and to keep, in Uke spirit, her high interests. How far 
from all bitterness and party rancor does his interview with 
his predecessor show him to have been, in which with great 
simphcity he said, " I never gave an office to a relative, nor 
asked one ; but if now you will send a grandson, whose only 
inheritance is his father's name, and sword, which has been 
well used in his country's service, to the military school, it 
will be a favor indeed." None of the angry feelings of the 
day were his. He came at the bidding of the nation, not 
to destroy, but to fulfil. 

May we not yet hope, that in coming years men shall 
arise to bless the nation with a clearness of intellectual 
vision and a depth of conscientious feeling, which shall 
make them safe guards, not to a party, but to the nation ; 
men, by whose wise measures and by whose vigorous eftbrts 
intrigue shall be disappointed, selfishness rebuked, and party 
strife quenched ? 

In turning our attention from the political lessons which 
this event teaches, we cannot but recognize in it the hand 
of Almighty God. The chief ruler of the country has been 
smitten down before our eyes ; and it has been by the 
power of Him by whom " kings reign and princes decree 
justice." It is but a brief space of time since the joyful 
pageant of thousands of our citizens was seen, thronging our 
streets to nominate him for President. So high were their 
expectations, that they seemed almost welcoming him before- 
hand to his high station, and associating with his name and 
official power, the security of their interests and the realiza- 
tion of the choicest hopes of their patriotism. This feeling, 
which rose up in the midst of us, came also, like the rising 
and onward rush of a mighty tide, from all parts of our 
country, and commingling, bore on its swelling bosom the 
object of its hopes. Around the Capitol, it came to its ful- 
ness, and depositing there its cherished treasure, it retired 



16 

in gentle murmurs to its native fountains, the hearths and 
the hearts of the citizens. Then with what deep and intense 
interest all looked upon the forms and ceremonies of the 
fourth of March, those last and highest channels through 
which the national feeling could express itself towards the 
man of its choice. How we all felt ourselves to be repre- 
sented by the mass of men, which thronged the avenues, and 
courts, and aisles of the Capitol, with jubilant feeling ; and 
rent the air with the spontaneous expressions of men, who 
were free ; and who, irrespective of sectional or of party ani- 
mosity, rejoiced in this token of their freedom. With what 
deep and exhilarating feelings of satisfaction and of peace 
the nation listened to the calm and benignant sentiments of 
truth and justice, that were uttered by him, on the day in 
which, as its ruler, he, calling God to witness, opened his 
heart for its inspection, and spoke of what the ruler of a free 
people should be, and what he should do. These senti- 
ments had scarcely passed from his lips, and the feeling of 
joy and of hope, which they inspired, was yet warm in the 
heart, when behold ! the candlestick is removed out of its 
place, the fire has gone out on the high altar of the country ; 
and lo, the sanctuary of power is enveloped in darkness ! 
It is the hand of Him, who worketh in the mysterious 
silence of inscrutible providence. Hark ! The voice, from 
within the veil, cries unto us : " Put not your trust in 
princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. 
His breath goeth forth, and he returneth to his earth." " Be 
still ; and know that I am God. I will be exalted among 
the heathen ; I will be exalted in the earth." 

Thus it is we hve, not merely under the constitution of 
this country, and the government which it establishes, but 
under a higher and wider-reaching kingdom, which com- 
prehends us, but as an item within its domain. Kings, 
princes, governments, nations, are but its ministers. Revo- 
lutions, changes, distress of nations, are but its means. 
Thrones, dynasties, empires, rise and shadow forth their 



17 

power, and then sink to darkness and oblivion, while it holds 
on its eternal and undisturbed way. This is the govern- 
ment that speaks unto us in this its providence ; and says 
to the nation, the " God in whose hand thy breath is, and 
whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified." But when 
the man, on whom our hearts had leaned as our stay and 
support, is struck down, and so struck as to show that the 
desires of a mighty nation are rebuked, and the prayers of 
sincere worshipers are denied, and the confiding hope of 
innumerable multitudes are scattered at the grave's mouth, 
whose conscience does not respond, alas ! alas ! we have 
not glorified " God, in whose hand our breath is, but we 
have trusted in an arm of flesh. We have called these gods, 
but behold ! they die like men." 

In surveying the history of our country, for the last six 
years, we can see disaster after disaster has followed the 
nation, and filled every part of it with lamentation and sor- 
row. While there has been comparatively little suffering 
from deprivation of the necessaries of life, our hopes of pros- 
perity have been blighted, our means of enjoyment have 
been curtailed, and our ability to fulfil our honest intentions 
has been destroyed. It is not, merely, that the business of 
life has been fluctuating and unstable, but coming events 
have defied the forecast of the wisest prudence ; the foolish- 
ness and the wisdom of this world have been alike baffled. 
This has affected, not merely our outward condition, but 
apparently the honesty and good faith of mutual intercourse, 
and has often placed the just and the upright side by side 
with the unjust and the deceiver, and merged them in one 
common condemnation. Nor has this been confined to the 
mutual relations of our own country, but we are more or 
less dishonored before the world, by our commercial and 
financial embarrassments ; and have our name repeated as 
evil, in the marts of commerce, and in the high places of the 
earth ; — and, if not a bye-word, we are almost a reproach 
among the nations. Calamities have indeed fallen upon us. 
c 



18 

Fire has wasted many of our beautiful places ; floods have 
swept away our wealth ; the ocean has swallowed up our 
riches, and many of our States are ready to sink under em- 
barrassments. And now the entanglements of our foreign 
relations, send streaming up the horizon the meteor signals 
of war ; and God has taken our great Captain from us. O, 
let us be instructed by these providences, lest at last he rule 
us with a rod of iron, and dash us in pieces as a potter's 
vessel. We were on the topmost wave of prosperity, and 
had become giddy with our high elevation. Our vanity and 
our pride were expanding in every direction. Instead of 
saying, behold, we count those happy, which endure, we 
eschewed such sentiments, counting those the most happy, 
whose hopes were tlie most gorgeous, and whose expecta- 
tions were the most extravagant. In this day of prosperity, 
the very charities of the nation began to be sacrilegiously 
withdrawn from their pure purposes, that we might gild the 
earthly castles of our hopes with unknown magnificence and 
splendor. This was our condition, when financial embar- 
rassments commenced, and our hopes were changed to fears. 
Some ascribed the difficulty to the perplexities of an over- 
done foreign commerce, some to a feverish rage to acquire 
wealth without labor by what is called speculation, some to 
what they called the injudicious action of the government 
in changing its fiscal arrangements, and some to a reckless 
expansion of the currency. Every thing, as cause or effect, 
seemed to combine to induce perplexity and distress ; vari- 
ous schemes were proposed ; experiments were tried, and 
temporary expedients resorted to every where to keep up 
our visionary hopes. Thus the nation has gone on for the 
last six years without thinking of, much less understanding 
its moral condition, and has only plunged deeper and 
deeper into sorrow, without returning and humbling itself 
before God. It has not understood its moral condition. 
Who does not know that human nature, in a course of 
unhumbled prosperity, gives rein to its desires until its hopes 



19 

become irrational, and its expectations alarming from their 
very extravagance and absurdity. Let then any cause arise^ 
so small perhaps as to be unnoticed, which shall shew these 
hopes to be without substance ; and solicitude and fear will 
take the place of hope, and the whole horizon appear filled 
with objects of distrust and jealousy. To reason a man or 
a nation out of such a state is impossible. Every thing that 
can be said is only food for its jealousy. The state itself is 
not produced by reasoning, and, therefore, we are not to be 
reasoned out of it. The nation needs to be held quiet and 
still by suffering, before it will know its own condition. It 
needs to feel the rod before it will lie down humbled and 
subdued ; and then new hope may be created out of humili- 
ty and confidence in an overruling providence. Be still ; 
have done with your devices and expedients, be still and 
know ; reflect, until you understand, that there is a God, 
who rules over all, and who will be exalted in the earth. 
But the nation would not be still. Goaded on by disap- 
pointment and by suffering, it compounded all the materials 
of excitement into one great mass, and, gathering strength 
from every quarter, rushed on to accomplish its purpose. 
It never paused, but bore on with irresistible power the 
man of its choice, nor stayed until it placed him in his seat, 
and gave him the sceptre of authority. He wielded it for a 
day. And then the king of terrors seized him. And now 
one ruleth over us whom no man intended should rule, and 
no man expected would rule. The one party is driven 
forth from place and from power, while the other, occupying 
their place and their station, find, at the moment of their 
elevation, an unseen hand removing their head from his 
station, and giving it to whomsoever it listeth. " Be still, 
and know that I am God ; I will be exalted in the earth." 

This is to us all a most emphatic lesson, teaching us that 
after all our efforts, and all our most cherished desires, there 
is still an authority, that rules according to its own wisdom 
and righteousness, in all our affairs. That, struggle as we 



20 

may to accomplish our personal or our national purposes, 
we are every moment liable to have our best plans frustra- 
ted, and the most universal expectations disappointed. No 
devices of man can compass the wisdom of God. And no 
man, and no nation can prosper for a long time whilst they 
contemn or disregard a government which holds them in its 
hand, as instruments of its sovereign pleasure and of its 
universal providence. However, then, wicked and cunning 
men may boast themselves of their devices ; and however 
partizans may calculate upon their successes, the govern- 
ment of God will treat them as chaff before the whirlwind. 
When they look for safety, behold, sudden destruction. 
" If the people imagine a vain thing, and if the kings of the 
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, 
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : The Lord shall 
have them in derision. He taketh the cunning in their own 
craftiness." 

In calling attention more particularly to the character of 
our late President, it is worthy of remark, that his is more 
interwoven with the history of the country, by a variety of 
public events, than that of any President since the days of 
Washington. Since his death, special attention has been 
given to acquire a knowledge of him, as exhibited in histori- 
cal sketches, and in those facts and incidents, which have 
been spread before the community. The common, if not 
the universal feeling is, that the superiority of his character 
was not understood, even by most of those who sought his 
elevation to office. It is a melancholy circumstance, that 
such is the prostitution of the public press, and such the 
recklessness of party, displayed in unmeaning eulogy or in 
indiscriminate and unmeasured comdemnation, that a quiet 
and reflecting man turns in disgust, alike from the fulsome 
flatteries and the careless censures, which are heaped upon 
all who are placed before the public for high stations. We 
are often obliged to wait until the grave has closed over 



21 

our patriots before we can understand their characters, 
much less estimate their worth. 

General Harrison possessed naturally an inward hilarity 
of feeling, which, in connection with his pure intentions, 
made goodness a spontaneous play-fellow in his mind ; 
a hilarity of feeling, which belonged to his family, and 
was possessed in such degree by that noble ancestor of his, 
who dared, in the defence of liberty and law, to place 
his foot upon the neck of Charles I., that a familiar 
acquaintance said of him, that he was " naturally of such a 
vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man hath, when he 
hath drunken a cup too much."* It was this quality of his 
natural character, that led him to seek from every one that 
approbation of his own conduct, which calls up, and gives 
expression to joyous feeling ; and to deprecate that censure 
and reproach which produces hate and wrath, or disappoint- 
ment and disgust. He was uncommonly sensitive to public 
favor. His mind yearned for its sunshine, as its natural 
element of joy. There was no love of power for its own 
sake, or to gratify selfish or ambitious views. Every public 
interest was perfectly safe in his hands. He had opportu- 
nities of amassing boundless wealth, in his public trusts ; but 
he came out of them poor, by his generosity and fidelity. 
He could have placed his family in situations of eminence 
and wealth ; but he scrupulously avoided every appearance 
of selfish aggrandizement, by their exaltation. Still he 
delighted in the approbation of all men, for it produced in 
them that gladness of mind nearest resembling his own spon- 
taneous and joyous feeling ; and did, as it were, multiply 
and extend the spirit of his own heart far and wide. This 
was the ground of his popularity, and it made him, not a 
partizan, but a man of charity, even towards his opponents ; 
and of kindly and benevolent feeling in his daily intercourse 
with all persons. His liberal education taught him to look 
into the records of the past for wisdom ; and having become 

* Richard Baxter. 



22 

specially familiar with Greek and Roman history, he studied 
their best patriots as favorite models. His mind did not rest 
upon the mere facts and circumstances of historical de- 
tail. He regarded them mainly as they illustrated that 
wisdom and goodness, which his joyous feelings led him 
to delight in. His mind, after having been, as it were, 
upon the boisterous and tempestuous sea of history, would 
return like the bird of peace to the quiet and joyous 
haven of his own goodness ; and there brood over and 
nourish the wise thoughts that goodness is always instinct 
with, and which all the facts and circumstances of human 
life do but illustrate and confirm, as of paramount im- 
portance. In this way, his mind was kept in such a free 
and impartial state, that it could not be subjected, for any 
considerable time, to the chance passions and the con- 
flicting interests of his temporary circumstances. He be- 
came wise and sagacious by the rich goodness of his own 
heart ; and this, connected with a physical constitution of 
sleepless activity, made him the safe depositary and the 
watchful guardian of every interest that could be committed 
to him. 

At the age of nineteen and twenty, when the young 
soldier of fortune, he was removed from the restraints of 
civilized life, and surrounded by temptations to intemperance 
and dissipation, aided by the almost omnipotent force of 
public opinion and public example in the army ; a force to 
which none of us would dare subject a child or a friend. 
But he was kept by his love of goodness, with a vestal's pu- 
rity, from yielding to his temptations. This, as a fixed point 
in his own heart from which to reason, gave him great cool- 
ness and great clearness in judging of the course of conduct 
to be pursued in any emergency. The quick eye of his 
commander. General Wayne, saw how temptations to idle- 
ness, to vice, to folly, fell off from him as though his joyous 
and homefelt goodness was an invincible but charmed shield 
to ward off every thing from the serene and sun-lighted 



23 

calmness of his own mind. Therefore did he repose un- 
bounded confidence in him. Think of him, at the age of 
twenty-two, as placed in the command of a Fort, which pro- 
tected, for thousands of miles, the whole Western frontier 
of the United States, and which required not mere courage 
in defence, but incessant activity, together with patience, 
and perseverance, and diplomatic tact. He v^^as encom- 
passed by active, secret, and treacherous foes, who were to 
be restrained and guided more by a power whose justice 
they saw and whose protection they could confide in, than 
in the mere display of warlike courage. From this trial he 
came forth with such honor, as to be placed, at the age of 
twenty-six, in Congress, to espouse, to project into laws and 
regulations, and to defend, the cause of humanity for the 
great Western section of the United States ; and that, too, 
against the cupidity and self-aggrandizement of many, who 
were supported by money, by official station, and by legal 
enactments confirmed by habitual usage. Against all these 
the young man stood up, sustained by his own love of wide- 
spreading and joyous happiness, which he saw would in a 
moment burst in upon the great wilderness of the West, and 
make it bud and blossom as the rose ; sustained by this, and 
fortified by his own sense of justice, he originated and per- 
fected the plan which wrenched the great West from the 
hands of ravenous speculators or of lordly proprietors, and 
has filled it with joyous families and enterprising citizens. 

What then could be more natural, than that the spontane- 
ous feeling of the Western people should call upon him, 
who had been their protector and advocate, to be their Gov- 
ernor ; which office he bore for thirteen years. It was the 
rich and unbought reward of exalted worth. His mind 
found delight — a delight congenial to his natural hilarity and 
goodness of heart, in beholding the swelling buds and the 
opening leaves, and the bursting flowers that sprang up in 
the cabins, as they rose on the prairies of the West. In this 
station he cultivated the friendship of the natives. He 



24 

secured both their respect and their confidence. He formed 
numerous treaties with them, as surprising for their wisdom 
and prudence, as they were uncompromising in their justice 
and equity ; and which, without despoiHng others, brought 
millions upon millions into our national treasury. 

But savage barbarity could not long brook to see its power 
breaking down, and its will subjected to the natural and 
healthful law of order and justice, which was extending 
itself under his peaceful administration. Its free ferocity 
was about to be curbed, its unsubdued passions restrained, 
and its rude, vast, unlimited, child-like imaginings control- 
led. These feelings became embodied in the person of 
Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet, who resolved to 
roll back the tide of population that was crossing the Alle- 
ghany mountains, and with the knife and the tomahawk, 
make the land clean of the white man. With such a Gov- 
ernor it was difficult to find an occasion for open war ; and 
the Warrior and the Prophet were constrained to assume, 
for the first time in Indian diplomacy, the ground that none 
of the tribes, however advantageously to themselves, could 
separate themselves from the great household of Indian 
humanity, without the free and full consent of all the tribes 
of the West. It was the magnificent idea of a despotic 
mind, which aimed to control a hundred nations by its own 
will. If the conception was grand, the means for effecting 
it were still more so. In the gloomy recesses of minds capa- 
cious of such things, the Warrior and his Brother deter- 
mined to bury the hatchet with every hostile tribe, and bind 
it to their own vast and stupendous plan for union in glory, 
on the one hand, and for extirpation and destruction on the 
other. They summoned to their aid the powers of Indian 
eloquence, the renown of Indian warfare, the ferocity of 
Indian excitement ; and they called, and it came at their 
bidding, the whole mystery and power of gloomy supersti- 
tion over barbarian minds ; and with incantations and pre- 
ternatural delusions, they succeeded in forming an alliance, 



25 

which hung for a time, like a cloudy tempest of fire and 
desolation, over the West. The falcon eye of Harrison saw 
this in its origin, and his prudence prepared for it. As the 
murmur of its coming fury sighed through the wilderness, he 
resolved, with characteristic energy and decision, to meet the 
tempest, and precipitate its hailstones and fire before it had 
acquired its greatest magnitude, and its most destructive 
impetus. This was done on the field of Tippecanoe. 
There the bow of the Warrior was broken ; and the Dragon 
that watched in the hall of superstition was slain. The 
country was delivered. The sleep of the cradle is now 
unbroken. The harvest of the field is now secured. 

Time would fail me to enter into detail concerning his 
success as a commander, over the British and Indians, in the 
war of 1812 — of the manner in which he discharged his 
duties as a Senator of the United States, and subsequently 
as a Foreign Ambassador, and of his conduct and bearing as 
a private citizen, and durisg his prospective elevation to that 
high station to which he was called by the voice of the 
nation. In them all, is seen a most singular simplicity and 
purity. There are no violations of moral obligation, no 
stains upon his moral character, no duels, no gusts of passion- 
ate feeling, no acts of sudden oppression. He can be held 
up for contemplation, without solicitude, to our children. 
There was a most rare union of all that could make a man 
loved, or respected, or confided in. He had passed through 
all political offices, he had been in all employments, which 
could try his firmness, which could exhaust his patience, 
which could tempt a passion for gain or for power, which 
could betray his prudence, which could lull his watchfulness 
to a false security, which could bring discredit upon his in- 
tegrity, or which could mar the purity of his Christian char- 
acter. He proved himself adequate to every station, and 
came forth clothed with that humility of greatness, and 
that meekness of wisdom, which never attracts to itself the 
wondering gaze of men, for the love of applause ; but is 



26 

content, having secured their approbation, to retire, in the 
consciousness of having deserved it, to the enjoyment of 
domestic peace and the quiet of natural employments. The 
most that has been said by any one against him is, that the 
superiority of his goodness was more manifest than his intel- 
lectual greatness. Why should it not be so ? He was not 
learned, as a retired scholar, or a deep read professional 
man. His active life did not permit it ; nor did he possess 
that tyrannical will, which seeks to bind all minds, over 
which it can acquire influence, to the fiery car of its own 
temper, and which commonly passes among political men for 
intellectual superiority. But be it so, that his goodness was 
more conspicuous than his intellectual superiority. It was 
out of goodness itself that this frame of universal nature 
sprang. It is goodness, that governs this world. It is the 
governing quality in the universe of God. He, who has it, 
can govern by the wisdom of goodness. He, who has it 
not, can be only cunning. Not content with being good, 
Adam sought to raise his knowledge above his goodness, 
and brought in ruin upon the race. And such, under the 
providence of a Being, who is goodness itself, will always be 
the ultimate result. Intellectual adroitness and temporary 
expediency may answer for the day, but goodness alone will 
ultimately sway all hearts, and effect all praiseworthy objects. 
The intellectual qualities of our departed Ruler were kept 
in such due subjection to the goodness of his heart, that 
they were not discerned by ordinary observers. Like those 
monuments of Architecture, whose exactness of proportion 
and whose beauty of finish seem to dwarf them to distant 
and to superficial observers, but which on a nearer view and 
a closer inspection rise from beauty to majesty, and from 
majesty to sublimity, so the character of this man being 
now brought home to the eyes and hearts of the whole 
nation, we see the completeness of its proportions, and 
admire the greatness of its strength, and the glory of its emi- 
nent excellence. Death hath rent the veil of his heart, and 



27 

we behold there every good and righteous purpose shrouded, 
as it were, in a cloud of devotional incense, which seemed, 
in the last days of his life, constantly ascending. 

There is that, which is deeply aflecting to every thought- 
ful mind, in the religious character of our departed Ruler. 
Like that of Washington, his whole character is unintelli- 
gible, except on the supposition of a deep and home-felt 
piety. They were neither of them ambitious of power, and 
in their hours of retirement and meditation they were not 
planning schemes for personal aggrandizement, or for personal 
gratification. Nor were they devoted to the interests of a 
party, but they sought to advance the public interests in such 
a way as truth and justice demanded, and thus to carry 
society on towards its perfection. Their minds could not, 
therefore, but constantly recur to that " order, which is 
heaven's first law," as the pre-established law for all perma- 
nent happiness, and for all pure enjoyment. This could not 
but be magnified in their minds as the source of all good to 
man, and therefore the character, and the Being out of 
which it sprang, was worthy the most profound reverence, 
and the highest adoration on their part. Were there no 
facts, in the lives of each, showing this in particular acts and 
habits of secret prayer, and in solemn public acts and habits 
of reverence and adoration, every reflecting mind would see 
it must be so in the inner sanctuary of their hearts. The 
public character of the men, being what it really was, un- 
stained by passion, and without the love of power for its 
own sake, it is not possible, if you penetrate beyond the 
outer court of oflicial formality, to the sanctuary of their 
thoughts, and find them intent on good, and thence to the 
inmost sanctuary of the soul, it is not possible that any thing 
should be there found except the two great tablets of that 
immutable law, which God has given us, the first declaration 
of which is, " Thou shall have no other Gods before me." 
We all of us feel it would be sacrilege, if not blasphemy, to 
suppose that in the penetralia of their bosoms these men had 



28 

erected idols to the crooked and dust-eating serpents, or the 
beastly calves of party or ambitious adoration. They had 
no image graven by art and man's device. They set them- 
selves against all such, and sought only that justice and 
judgment might be the stability of their character and of 
their acts ; for they reverenced above all " Him, who judgeth 
righteously." This is abundantly manifest in the " Farewell 
Address" of the one, and in the " Inaugural Address," and 
in the " Circular" to the several Departments, of the other. 

There was more of silent thoughtfulness in the former, 
and more of that open communicativeness in the latter, 
which leads to a ready compliance with the ordinary 
outward habits of religious Ufe. He loved intercourse with 
religious men, he delighted in religious duties, he rejoiced in 
public benevolent acts, such as characterize religious people, 
and was ready to give beyond his means to aid in every 
excellent and public object. 

At the age of sixty-seven, and just as he was entering his 
high office, he visited the house of his boyhood, tiie room of 
his birth; he pointed out the closet where his mother retired 
for private devotion — the corner of the room where she sat 
to read her Bible, and taught him on his knees, to say " Our 
Father, who art in Heaven." The letter to his wife, dated 
on the morning of his inauguration, shows that, in his closet, 
he had been seeking the requisite wisdom and strength, 
which Cometh from above, for the high duties and responsi- 
bilities of that day. Its morning light found him like Solo- 
mon, as he entered upon his kingly authority, communing 
with God and saying, " I am but a little child, I know not 
how to go out or to come in, and thy servant is in the midst 
of thy people, which thou has chosen ; a great people that 
cannot be numbered and counted for multitude. Give, 
therefore, thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy 
people, that I may discern between the good and bad." 
Look at the "Inaugural Address" and at the "Circular" 
sent to the different departments of the government, and 



29 

you may see with what righteous integrity he sought to dis- 
cern between the good and the bad. His home was known 
as a house of quietness and devotion on the Sabbath ; intru- 
sive company were excluded; and the word of God, the 
word of wisdom and of love, the word of knowledge and of 
understanding, was his daily study. O, how like unto the 
great ruler of Israel, who said, " Thy word is a lamp unto 
my feet, and a light unto my path. Through thy precepts 
I get understanding, and, therefore, I hate every false way. 
Thy statutes are my song in the house of my pilgrimage." 

The loss of such a Pvuler is indeed a national calamity, so 
far as our weak faith can understand. But " The Lord 
hath purposed it to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring 
into contempt all the honorable of the earth," that we may 
know that he is God, and that he will not give his glory to 
another. Let us then, with grateful feelings, treasure up 
the memory of those virtues, which have been so unexpect- 
edly removed from our sight ; and, with deep humility, 
mourn over that confidence which we have placed in man, 
and that trust which we have exercised in our own plans, 
and which has been so signally rebuked in this event. 
The great and the good has fallen ; and while we stand 
around the open grave, in which is buried our hope, let us 
cry, " Our Father, our Father, be thou our rod and our 
staff, our shield and our buckler, our sure defence. Then 
will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though 
the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." 



NOTE. — [page 13.] 



Good men of quiet tempers, have, at all periods, sought to allay the bitter- 
ness of party strife. But many have supposed the only way to do this was to 
keep in such ignorance of political principles and political relations, as to make 
it impossible to form an opinion on siich matters ; or utterly to refuse to express 
that opinion, either by speech, or by the performance of those duties which 
grow out of the rights of citizenship. Doubtless every right-minded man should 
considerately regard the time, place, and manner of exercising any particular 
right by the performance of the duties it involves; and seek to avoid, not only 
evil, but, as far as may be, the appearance of evil. But he displays little knowl- 
edge of human society, and no foresight, who supposes that his own forbear- 
ance to exercise his rights by the performance of the duties, which fealty to 
the constitution requires, will produce unity of principle and unity of action in 
the mass of society. This unity cannot come from the forbearance of the 
members of the State towards each other; but from the reception and the be- 
lief of political truths in which all agree, in distinction from an adherence to 
the particular notions, and the individual opinions, which each happens to form 
of the men or the measures of the day. It is by clearly seeing and constantly 
upholding these political truths, that unity in spirit is produced, and the bond 
of peace cemented. It is by the belief in such, that some men are capable of 
an earnest love for their country, and an honest zeal for the welfare of its insti- 
tutions, who will not be made convenient tools for other men to use for party 
purposes. 

That there are such political truths, which are consciously or unconsciously 
received by the people as a whole, no man doubts, who heartily believes in the 
possibility of the self-government of the nation. And the man, who does not 
heartily believe this, may well inquire by what right, asserted in his own con- 
science, he calls himself an American citizen, or on what just ground he holds 
feality to the constitution of his country. And yet there are men, and some 
so blinded as perhaps not to know it is true of themselves who are faithless 
concerning the existence of political truths, in which the people at large believe. 
He, who thinks that men are to be guided or governed by arraying one class 
against another, has no faith in there being political truths in which all agree, 
and that by giving full scope and influence to them, harmonious and healthful 
action would take place. He does not seek to explain in a logical and intelli- 
gent way, the unconscious principles, which are at the bottom of the desires of 
all honest men for good government and for just and purifying institutions. 
But he arrays man against his fellow, and teaches hate and opposition to classes 



32 

of men, not because they are personally bad, but because they happen to be 
lawyers or clergymen, mechanics or farmers, merchants or bankers. By his 
willingness thus, to do evil that good may come, he shows his want of faitli 
in tlie good. ' 

There is a more excellent way than this ; and that is, with kind patience, but 
with honest fearlessness, to show up those political truths, which the people are 
ready to act upon, but which it requires their "sober, second thought," to 
understand how to apply in all cases. It is a political truth, in which all men 
agree, that there is no man who wishes to submit, or who will submit, except by 
a necessity which he cannot control, to be governed by men because they are 
rich ; nor on the other hand, is there any man who will submit to be governed 
by men because they are poor. The same may be affirmed of any other class or 
classes in the community. And he, therefore, that would array the one against 
the other, for the purpose of governing them, has no faith in the existence of 
political truths, in virtue of which the people are united under one form of politi- 
cal existence. It is another political truth in which all men agree, that govern- 
ment is not organized for the men who hold office, be they Kings, Lords, or 
Commons ; or Presidents, Senators, and Representatives ; and therefore that the 
povver of government is not to be applied to benefit the selfish wishes of the 
office bearers. It is also another political truth, that government is intended to 
be an organization for the public weal, res publica, a thing for the public; that 
is, an organization by which the members of the State have their rights, both as 
men and'as citizens, secured to them, that the nation may obtain the highest 
happiness, and the greafest purity, that belong to social existence. 

It is by keeping these and such like truths before the people, and awakening 
that unity of feeling, which they inspire, that we may hope to mitigate the evils 
of party dissensions. And if those, who give attention to political matters, 
would seek to understand more fully than many do, the truths -and principles 
unconsciously involved in the desires of all honest men for good government, 
and to explain them, so that the nation might become conscious of them, 
it would greatly allay the feverish heat of party strife. It would induce a 
mutual confidence, and a feeling of unity, which would issue in harmonious 
action, and produce the happiest fruits. But so long as men rank themselves as 
party men, and ascribe to their opponents all the evil intentions that they sup- 
pose have existed under the various forms of the most iniquitous governments, 
so long will political truths be disregarded or misunderstood, and the commu- 
nity will be swayed hither and thither by a class of names, and nothing but 
names. We have renounced the rights of primogeniture, and all the ancestral 
glory or excellence that others ascribe to it ; we are neither of York nor Lancas- 
ter, we wear neither the White Rose nor the Red ; but still many of us are wil- 
ling to gain the glory of a political pedigree by tracing our opinions to a connection 
with those of some warrior or statesman, or sage of the Revolution, and, prefix- 
ing his name to our party, strive to shelter the nakedness of our own opinions 
under the majesty of his robe. Instead of this, why may we not spend our 
strength in unfolding and explaining those political truths, which are the ground 
of our well being and the source of our happiness ; and thus produce that unity 
of spirit, and that bond of peace, which is the perfection of social existence. 



LEJr.'12 



